2023-10-11 08:19:08
by Cristina Marrone
In the heart of the meat it is more difficult to reach the recommended temperature of 70 but the lateral surfaces are the areas most at risk of Salmonella contamination
How do you know when a piece of chicken is cooked? Most people think you can tell just by looking at color. However this is not a reliable method. Chicken is one of the foods most at risk of contamination by Salmonella and Campylobacter, two bacteria that can cause serious food-borne gastrointestinal bacterial diseases and for this reason great attention must be paid to the cooking phase. Chicken should always be eaten well cooked, underlines Claudia Picozzi, researcher at the Department of Food, Nutrition and Environmental Sciences at the University of Milan. These microorganisms, of intestinal origin, are also present in beef, but are much less frequent. Salmonella, on the other hand, is typical of the poultry chain and is more easily present in chicken and turkey meat.
The changing color
We generally understand when meat is cooked because it becomes darker: muscle tissue actually changes color when myoglobin, a protein similar to hemoglobin, is denatured. The red meat then turns brown. However, white meat contains less myoglobin than red meat. The color change is therefore less pronounced, and can also occur before the harmful bacteria have been completely eliminated. Chicken meat turns white from pink, but these shades are less perceptible to the human eye, says Picozzi.
The field experiment
In a 2020 study Solveig Langsrud and colleagues from the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture injected Salmonella and Campylobacter into some chicken fillets. The scientists then cooked the fillets between two grill plates until they reached internal temperatures between 50 and 70. At this point, samples were taken from the core and surface of the meat for analysis.
The first data that emerged was that in most cases the color change occurred below 55, while according to the World Health Organization guidelines, chicken meat should reach 70 at all points to be cooked safely. for about a minute. It is also possible to maintain lower temperatures, but cooking must be longer. The important thing is for the heart to reach at least 60, the researcher recommends.
The other data that emerged in the experiment was that even when the internal temperature of the fillets reached 70, some bacteria survived on the lateral surface of the meat, the one that does not come into contact with the plate and is therefore more difficult to reach the ideal safety temperature. which breaks down any microorganisms present.
When contamination can occur
It is precisely the outermost part of the meat that is most at risk of contamination. As Picozzi points out, by law you cannot sell meat from a sick animal and veterinary checks are strict. The quality of the raw material certainly influences what the initial contamination may be. The most delicate phase is the manipulation of the product such as evisceration, handling or preparation of the food – explains Claudia Picozzi – and in healthy animals the contamination is present only externally and not inside the muscle. It is good practice to keep the meat at room temperature as little as possible because any salmonella present can multiply compared to the original contamination and the more numerous the microorganisms are, the more serious the infection can be.
Tips on how to cook chicken safely
Attention must therefore be paid to cooking all sides. The food industry helps us with this: it is easy to find thin chicken slices in supermarkets and thick slices such as beef fillet are not common and therefore it is easier to reach the ideal temperature, even laterally. Grill cooking is generally quicker – concludes the researcher – and in this case it is advisable to start it when the griddle has already reached the ideal temperature. Chicken nuggets are also popular and by turning them in the pan several times on all sides you can easily reach high temperatures and make visual inspection easier. It is possible to cook thicker slices when the type of cooking is different from the very rapid one used on the griddle: when we prepare the chicken and flour it, perhaps with a splash of white wine or Marsala, the cooking takes longer and we can easily reach 70 in the heart of the slice of meat.
October 11, 2023 (modified October 11, 2023 | 08:18)
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